With the Tories following Trump rules, it’s about to get ugly

If the Conservatives think they can paint Trudeau into a corner as a hypocrite who talks about the middle class, but resides in the penthouse of privilege, they will have to account for their previous leader’s epic extravagance.

By now, Justin Trudeau must have figured out how the Conservatives plan to come after him in 2019.

By hook or by crook, but mostly crook.

Their goal?

To portray the PM as a trust-fund aristocrat who hasn’t got the foggiest idea of how ordinary people live. Not a man of the people, but of the beautiful people. Not a weekend cottage kind of guy, but a holiday buddy of the Aga Khan kind of guy.

The most recent example is that swing set the Trudeau installed at Harrington Lake. Lots of parents buy swing sets for their kids. Admittedly, a much smaller percentage of them pay $7,500 for them.

But the way Conservative leader Andrew Scheer raised the subject, you would think that Trudeau had taken the money straight out of the Mint to splurge on his brood’s private playground.

The reality check here would normally be to simply state the facts. Trudeau personally paid for the swing set, charging taxpayers $1,800 for its installation, as per National Capital Commission rules. Presumably when he leaves as prime minister, the swing set stays — along with the sauna (also paid for by Trudeau), and the refurbished deck and floating dock.

But the reality check in this case is that Scheer chose to use the $7,500 figure after the PM disclosed that he had paid that money himself.

The Opposition leader wanted people to condemn Trudeau for implied extravagance at the public expense. What he was really doing was trashing the PM for something he hadn’t done, using an assertion that was either meaningless or deliberately false.

In other words, post-truth trash.

Sound familiar?

Scheer’s communications strategy is reminiscent of Donald Trump’s. At one level, the president rails against the violent gang MS-13 to justify his heartless and possibly illegal immigration policy. Meanwhile, the TVs of the nation flash images of migrant children in cages, warehoused in vacant Walmarts.

Despite the president’s bombastic lies, these kiddie prisoners don’t look much like gang members to me. Trump now wants to deport without judges and due process. He is merely creating perception to smother reality.

And so is Scheer.

The Conservatives have also roasted Trudeau for the profligacy of his February trip to India. The $1.5 million price tag for this ill-fated journey, included more than $17,000 to fly in a Vancouver chef. The guy whipped up a couple of doubtlessly delicious meals for mucky-mucks attending an official reception at the Canadian High Commission.

It also cost nearly half a million dollars to staff and fly the government Airbus that took Trudeau and his retinue from Canada to India.

It is low hanging fruit for the Conservatives to cite Trudeau’s travel costs to support the charge that the public is paying for his regal roaming. And frankly, I think the PM could probably have dropped the chef without too many people going hungry on that trip.

Unfortunately for the Conservatives, their previous leader took deeper dives into the pork barrel of public life than Trudeau ever has.

Trudeau may have flown in a vanity chef on his nine-day sojourn to India, but former PM Stephen Harper blew $3.9 million during two trips to the same destination, one in 2009 and a second in 2012, which totalled nine days as well.

Part of Harper’s obscene travel bill was to fly in his own armoured and bullet-proof vehicles — two Cadillacs and an SUV.

Missing in Conservative screeds alleging prime ministerial excess is the fact that Trudeau used vehicles provided by the Indian government. At $58,000, that was quite a bargain compared to Harper’s million-dollar motorcade.

Despite raised eyebrows at the costs of Trudeau’s attendance at the 2018 World Economic Forum in Davos, iPolitics reported that Trudeau’s trip actually cost less than Harper’s 2012 junket — after inflation is factored in.

The bill came to $695,937.04 for Harper, versus $678,000 for Trudeau in 2018.

Not exactly economy travel in either case. It appears the only person eating sandwiches and driving a rental car at Davos was expense-obsessed Conservative MP Michelle Rempel.

That isn’t called virtue.

It’s called being in Opposition.

If the Conservatives think they can paint Trudeau into a corner as a hypocrite who talks about the middle class, but resides in the penthouse of privilege, they will have to account for their previous leader’s epic extravagance.

But they can’t.

How do you attack Trudeau for lavish spending, when Harper brought in a fleet of twenty vehicles to Davos and blew more than a billion dollars on the G8 and G20 Summit in Toronto and Huntsville back in 2010?

That said, not all the strategy against Trudeau is as easily debunked or coming directly out of Conservative headquarters.

Tory friendly newspapers and social media have recently featured a story raising the allegation that Trudeau groped a female reporter many years ago.

The story, which has recently appeared in varying forms in the Toronto Sun and the National Post, lays out the claims of an unnamed female reporter.

She told her publisher at the Creston Valley Advance that Trudeau had groped her. The publisher confirmed that the reporter’s complaint was made at the time it allegedly happened — 18 years ago, when Trudeau was 28.

The newspaper even ran an editorial at the time referencing the alleged incident and chastising Trudeau:

“Didn’t he learn through his vast experiences in public life that groping a strange young woman isn’t in the handbook of proper etiquette regardless of who she is, what her business is, or where they are?”

This story may or may not develop, depending on whether the reporter in question decides to go fully public with her allegations. Or if other accusers come forward publicly with similar stories.

But it is worth noting that the Prime Minister’s Office has not flatly denied this story, only that Trudeau can’t remember any “negative interactions” during his trip to Creston.

Not good enough — and his opponents know it. This is the guy who said that when a woman comes forward with an accusation of sexual improprieties, it is government’s “duty” to believe them.

Even when the alleged groping took place 18 years ago? Here’s what Trudeau told the CBC on that score: “There is no context in which someone doesn’t have responsibility for things they have done in the past.”

So is this former reporter to be believed? If so, will Trudeau do in his own case what he has done to other members of caucus — conduct an investigation, give up his responsibilities or step out of caucus until the facts are known?

If he doesn’t, an argument will be made against him that he is acting hypocritically. One treatment for Hunter Tootoo, Massimo Pacetti, Kent Hehr and Scott Andrews, another for the prime minister. Not a good position to be in facing what will likely be a very dirty run up to the next federal election in Canada.

It’s Trump rules in Conservative circles these days, and it’s about to get ugly.

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The views, opinions and positions expressed by all iPolitics columnists and contributors are the author’s alone. They do not inherently or expressly reflect the views, opinions and/or positions of iPolitics.

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Michael Harris is a writer, journalist and documentary filmmaker. He was awarded a Doctor of Laws for his “unceasing pursuit of justice for the less fortunate among us.” His nine books include Justice Denied, Unholy Orders, Rare ambition, Lament for an Ocean and Con Game. His work has sparked four commissions of inquiry and three of his books have been made into movies. His book on the Harper majority government, Party of One, was a number one best-seller.